Injured Lee eyeing an imminent return - Cricket News Update
Australian fast bowler, Brett Lee, who is nursing a toe injury, is eying an early return to the side as he said he will do everything possible to be back for Friday’s Commonwealth Bank series match against Sri Lanka, scheduled to be played at Sydney.
The 35-year-old New South Wales pace-man sustained a toe injury during the second T20 International against India at Melbourne on February 3 and was initially ruled out for six weeks. But the right-arm fast bowler has said that he is ready to push the pain
barrier and will try to make an early comeback to the side.
"The way I explain it is by saying there is a crack in the toe. It's fractured, but I'm told if you're going to have that happen to you the little toe is the best one to break," said Lee speaking to media reporters on Sunday.
"I'm striving to be back for the game in Sydney (against Sri Lanka on Friday), I'm doing everything I possibly can to play. I've (played with pain) on numerous occasions and I know I can play with a broken toe,” he added further.
The speedster, who had retired from Test cricket in February 2010 to extend his limited overs career, said that he had played a lot of games in pain, adding that players do such things when playing for their country. He said that the reason for not featuring
in the first three CB games was to ensure that the injury does not aggravate further.
"People asked how I played with my toe split in half at the MCG, but you do these things when you play for your country,” said the Australian pacer who is one of the fastest bowlers international cricket has ever seen.
“In terms of (my) pain threshold I've played a lot of games in pain ... the reason I took time off was to ensure there wasn't any long-term damage to the toe," he explained.
Ben Hilfenhaus has been called into the squad as a replacement for the injured Lee. He is making a return after a gap of more than two years. The lanky pacer has not played in a CB series game so far, as the Australian selectors have fielded an unchanged
attack in all three games so far.